Peter Bysted from ICONO, and Professor Peter
Kjær Mackie Jensen, head of the Disaster Management Master's
program at the University of Copenhagen, have developed the
Child-Friendly Latrine together. Testing of the latrine in Ghana is
going to be carried out in collaboration with the University of
Copenhagen.

The very fact that there is going to be a user
test carried is something unique; there is very little empirical
material on latrine functionality and perception on a global level.
This is something that has been most puzzling to the two
initiators.

Consequently, there is certainly going to be a
formal evaluation after the latrines are finally put into
production and put to use, with an eye toward making any
adjustments in the product that might benefit its ease-of-use and
uptake.

Development and production

Peter Bysted and Peter Kjær Mackie Jensen have managed to build
up a network of experts who will be of help in launching the
project, individuals who are working in the fields of law,
manufacturing, medicine and public health. Similarly, throughout
the initial stages of the project, there has been close contact
with relief organizations in order to ensure that these primary
purchasers' needs are also being taken into account.

It is being considered to place the development, the operation
and the sale of the Child-Friendly Latrine under the auspices of a
foundation, so that the business model can be developed in synch
with the possibilities that present themselves. Whatever surplus
profit the foundation might acquire can be used for emergency
relief and emergency relief innovation.

"This is going to be a non-profit venture on our part, all the
way from the get-go. Our contribution, then, involves nothing
beyond that we want to succeed, that we want to have this all work
out, in reality, with the end result that millions of people's
basic needs will be met in a markedly better, more hygienic and
thus lifesaving way," says Peter Bysted.

The actual manufacture of the latrines will come to transpire
through licensing agreements, set up to ensure quality - and will
unfold through a contract framework based on principles of
open-calculation with clear requirements regarding transparency. In
this way, there will be an assurance that nobody is tipping the
scales or amassing large profits for him/herself along the chain of
commerce.

The latrine will be created in such a way that it can lend
itself to gradually being transformed into a more permanent latrine
in the course of time, as the refugees settle and acquire long-term
residence. During the initial phase, the intention is primarily
that the latrine is to be deployed in connection with emergency
relief, but there have already been other people that have
expressed their interest in this mobile and simple latrine, people
like labourers in the agricultural areas in Central America, where
purchasers of fruits and vegetables (the warehouses in the United
States) are starting to pose stringent demands on hygiene and safe
production.